Nintendo Appoints a Digital Strategy Executive – Nintendo needs all the help in can get in the world of networks and digital distribution. Let’s hope this position actually has some power to get things done. Also hoping he knows his stuff – Disney tends to be a mishmash of antiquated thinking and new-up-and-coming…

Speaking of Disney – A collection of products based on glamour sketches of various female Disney Villains. I kinda get a ’30s vibe from the styles. And yes, the Disney Store has its own pinterest page.

A Campaign to get Portal Lego Sets – Cuusoo is a voting platform for people to vote for sets that Lego may actually consider making, so it is in fact Legit. Proposal was rejected at first (licensing issues, I imagine), but has since been un-rejected.

A popular mechanic for many games is a class system, giving a sense of variety and tactical decisions. Each class excels at a certain role, applying the principle of specialization of labor. In theory, this specialization also allows for the whole to be greater than the sum of the parts – after all, specialization of labor is absolutely integral to the basis of civilization and the manufacturing revolution.

There is, however a tension between classes, as classes can fall into two general categories: Soloable roles and Support roles. The Soloable class is often the Fighter, able to take a hit and dish out a solid blow. They don’t need anyone else. Support classes tend to be things like the Tank (indestructible, low damage output), the Artillery (massive damage output, glass jaw), and Utility (low damage output, fragile, but dirty tricks). A support class trades core competencies for greater aptitude in other areas. Depending on the precise system, Tanks and Artillery are semi-soloable, with Tanks being slightly more soloable inclined.

Leaving us with Utility. While Tanks and Artillery get some of the Support stigma, their value is readily apparent, as is their soloability. Many Utilities are capable of soloing, but they lack the survivability and damage output to do it as fast and successfully as soloables.

Many people dislike Utilities, whether it be playing with them or playing as them. People of course appreciate healing effects, but that usually means that anyone with healing talent is reduced to “Healer” regardless of other competencies. Or “Useless,” if their healing isn’t terribly effective.

Utility tends to work behind the scenes – their role is “make the others feel more awesome.” They trade in making allies more powerful or making enemies weaker. They also tend to be extremely good at this, to make up for their terrible offensive and defensive capabilities. This tends to be a thankless job in many settings, as fanfare is delivered for striking killing blows or making phenomenal saves. Everyone cheers for the Quarterback, while the Linebackers, at best, are praised as a unit.

As a general rule, then, it tends to be a certain class of people that gravitate toward Utility roles. The stage crew often gets as much satisfaction from a successful play as the lead roles. The editor takes pride in turning a gifted author’s work into something readable and less fraught with cliches. These are people that don’t seek – and often don’t want – the spotlight, though they do appreciate the occasional shout-out, or even just a nod of appreciation. Interestingly, many of those naturally inclined toward Utility actually find themselves bored by the more Soloable roles – Utilities often take a wide-angle approach to a given situation, while Soloables take a narrowly-focused, more personal role. If someone’s used to being a chessmaster, they resent becoming a single piece, even if that piece is the Queen.

Which leads to a growing trend, which is somewhat distressing – the attempt to “fix” Utilities.

From a demographic standpoint, many more people want to be Soloables than Utilities. As stated, they find Utilities worthless, frustrating, or simply a headache. So people petition the designers to make the Utilities more soloable, because they want variety in their choice of soloables. The designers are then compelled to increase the soloability of Utilities, consequently weakening their utility.

Examples of this abound throughout games. In Team Fortress, the Medics are fragile and have relatively weak attacks. This is balanced by allowing healing to be counted for assists, as well as providing them with the only submachine guns in the game. In City of Heroes, Controllers had their hard controls weakened, in exchange for “containment” – an ability that dramatically increases their damage output. These are relatively good examples, as the classes remain Utilities, but aren’t quite as helpless when they’re alone.

For a less beneficial example, we turn to an unfortunate example – unfortunate because it already gets enough grief on the internet as it is. I am, of course, referring to Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition, or D&D 4E (and the coming 5E). In previous editions, there was quite a range of power level, especially if you’re talking about everything falling under the d20 umbrella. Generally, there was a balance between Utility and Soloability, with the ever unavoidable exceptions, and many of the less combat-capable were extremely useful outside of combat. Alternately, their value in combat was less for their own combat capabilities and more for making their allies better.

But that was not to remain the case. As one of the most popular D&D memes is “Bards Suck,” the designers decided to start from the perspective of the Soloability proponents. Thus, all classes were developed to be nearly interchangeable with balance – different classes meant slightly different flavors, but everyone worked in a relatively similar manner. Healing was reduced to a short-term concern, an d particular effort was made to ensure that no class would be a “heal bot.” Control effects were lumped together with light artillery – maintaining perhaps the greatest degree of utility, but still focusing heavily on damage output.

There are largely three problems with “fixing” Utilities. The most obvious drawback is the fact that there are people that truly enjoy and desire Utility play. “Fixing” utilities simply drives them away, as the implication is that they’re not really wanted. The second issue is similarly apparent – at best you end up with a variety of fruit-flavored fighters, at worst you end up with Frankenstein’s monsters that aren’t very good at anything. Finally, you have the intangible – the primary role of the utilities is to make their allies feel more powerful. When utilities are weakened, it can lead to everyone feeling less powerful.

So, even if Utilities aren’t your thing, let them live. There are people who love staying out of the spotlight, especially when they can do more from out there. Besides, it’s more civilized. Utilities allow for a team to work together – a group of Soloables is simply soloing in tandem – there is much less need, desire, or appreciation for cohesion.

It has occurred to me that I still haven’t really made the purpose of this blog clear.

In large part, I started this blog for myself. My first post kind of touched on things, but I feel I can do a better job. People who meet me in person can often find my thoughts and though processes confusing. It may or may not surprise them to know that I often find my own thoughts confusing. This is an attempt, in part to address that. I take my thoughts and try to pin them down for two reasons – because the act of writing gives some semblance of organization; and because having the thoughts set in a fixed form allows me to look back at them and reprocess the ideas. Therefore, many of my posts will resemble a “stream of consciousness.” In time, this sense may disappear, but it remains present for the time being.

Additionally, I want to become better at writing and expression. Words are a terrible form of expression, but they’re likely the best we’ll have for most of my lifetime. And I’m bad at words. If I take my time, and really work to refine it, I may have something that keeps me happy for a while, but I’m a perfectionist. I hope to get better at organizing my thoughts, at thinking, and at expression in general.

I also want people to think on what I have to say. I want discussion. I would love to have influenced someone in some way with my words. But those reasons aren’t why I post here. While I would greatly appreciate any of those, as well as a ton of other secondary and tertiary reasons, the traffic on this blog, as well as the effect on others, can be non-existent, and it will serve my purposes.

Many of these early posts may make this appear to be a gaming blog. I have no intention to remain focused on that subject, or any other subject. Games play a large role in my life, so I perhaps tend to think of them more often, but the direction of this blog has everything to do with where my mind takes me. Gamers are welcome to come along for the ride, or even ignore everything but the gaming posts, but this blog isn’t made with them in mind.

On occasion, I will revisit older posts and try to rewrite them, linking back to the original (for historical purposes). I welcome comments, for your own benefit, for my own, or for the benefit of others. The more discussion, the more opportunity to discuss, to clarify thoughts. Bear in mind, however, that most of my posts come out half-formed, and perhaps a little incoherent or poorly worded. I write to think, and to get better at thinking. If it gives clarity to others or leads to a productive discussion, all for the better.

On Sunday, I noted the announcement of the 3DS XL, and mentioned that I had my own thoughts on the matter. For context, I got a 3DS within the month of launch. Can’t remember if I went so far as to get it on launch, but it’s possible.

The Good

Obviously, the larger size is nice for visuals. There are some very nice looking DS and 3DS games that could really be served well by being on a larger screen. As I understand, the larger screen really delivers. I was never bothered by the battery life, but it was evidently a big deal to lots of people. The XL has a longer battery life. The XL also supports a larger SD card. It allegedly has a nicer form factor, and is more ergonomically designed. Additionally, the $200 price tag doesn’t seem so bad. The DSi XL seemed a bit inflated in price, but that lies in part with its proximity to the announcement of the 3DS. I can see a $200 price being justified, with the minor caveat that that puts it at the same price as current-gen consoles, if not more expensive.

The Bad

The 3DS seems to have been designed with travel in mind. It’s difficult to reconcile the StreetPass feature with the larger system, as a larger system is less portable. Nintendo, like so many other companies, is irrationally afraid of us stealing from them, so my library of DSi and eShop games are either inaccessible or subject to a rather obnoxious migration process. Which deletes any saves. Furthermore, any attempts to add functionality to the system will brick it. Are they trying to compete with the iPad? The price makes it competitive with iPads, but a 3DS isn’t nearly as multipurpose. Never mind the fact that Nintendo is still terrified of the internet. People say that Apple is eating Nintendo’s lunch in the portable arena. I don’t but that idea, and think remaining a dedicated system is perhaps the wisest approach, but it needs to be done right. It can’t be done by pretending to be an iPod, or an iPad. It can’t en done by sticking to the same ideas that have worked for a century, but it also can’t be done by shouting “me too!”

A few short years ago, Nintendo caught everyone by surprise with the DS and the Wii, both expected to be flops. They seem to have learned the wrong lesson. The lesson they learned was “Screw the public, we can do better if we trust our instincts!” The lesson that should have been learned was “Dare to be different. Try new things and take risks.” Seeing as the key announcements for Nintendo have been the Wii U, New Super Mario Bros. 2, and the 3DS XL, I think it’s fair to say they didn’t learn the right lessons.

The Ugly

Everyone’s making a stink about the lack of a second analog pad. Dual analog controls weren’t the norm for quite some time in polygon-rendered games (i.e. 3d environments and characters). There are other control schemes that work. Kid Icarus: Uprising was a disaster with controls, admitted. But ti was a disaster precisely because the designers were married to one particular idea of what a control scheme should be. Pot, meet kettle.

Also, the color choices on launch are pretty lame.

Since we’ve just gotten the announcement, there’s really not much that would be fair to say right now, even though the anticipated release is about 2 months from now. Seeing how things go, I may be enough of a sucker to get one – the visual improvement is hard to deny, and most of my portable gaming is on a couch anyway, and I’m probably more devoted to Nintendo than I should be or they deserve. But Nintendo getting my business is hardly a mark of success.

Visual Novels are a strange creature, with the term only now really reaching mainstream Western culture through such avenues as the Phoenix Wright series and the newly minted Zero Escape series, originally known as the game 999 – Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors. Arguably, visual novels have been present in the west for ages, though not recognized as such.

Visual novels have a bit of an identity crisis. This is perhaps because of the broad definition. Stripped to the most basic elements, it appears that visual novels require a graphical element and a story conveyed through the written word. Most visual novels include music and sound effects, they often include animation, and an increasing number are partially or fully voiced. So, by the strict definition, a visual novel can encompass anything from an illustrated ebook (which many would consider a stretch) to a fully animated, fully voiced presentation – essentially a movie with subtitles and user prompts. Visual novels generally – but not always – have choices at pivotal points, in the vein of Choose Your Own Adventure books. So, to qualify as a visual novel, it appears to require the visual element, the text element, and user-prompted progression, often with a multiple choice element.

Definition aside, the general approach of Visual Novels is a text window with a background designating the location and portraits of the characters interacting with the main character (generally portraits from the knees up). At key points when the text description seems insufficient, there will be a CG (I’m guessing it stands for Custom Graphic, but the acronym’s never actually been explained to me). Again, this is not the ideal for Visual Novels – it is only the norm.

Likely due in part to the unclear identity, there is discussion and debate over whether Visual Novels can be considered Video Games. From a technical standpoint, they bear a strong resemblance to video games, packaged in a similar manner, with a presentation bearing many of the tropes of video game design (i.e. save/load feature, “victory” and “defeat,” etc.) The waters get muddied even further as Visual Novels mover further and further away from static images and text. If we were to classify Visual Novels as a sort of Video Game, they would likely be the most obvious form of non-Toy video game.

999 is pretty universally considered a Visual Novel. Oddly enough, there appears to be less certainty that Phoenix Wright is a visual novel, despite the seeming closer adherence to Visual Novel conventions. 999 has loads and loads of text, a Forking Multipath structure, and a few (limited) animations. 999 is also an example of a Visual Novel hybrid. In between the visual novel sequences, there are “room escape” segments, in which you explore a room Myst-style (or Monkey Island), use random objects in resourceful ways, all to find a way to get out of the room. In this way, 999 is half Toy and half Visual Novel.

Phoenix Wright also presents the loads and loads of text, portraits and text boxes, and actually has arguably less Toy to it. The Investigation portions are a quasi-Network narrative (i.e. much more Linear with the appearance of choice), while the Courtroom portions are a heavily Branching Linear with pre-decisional looping (i.e. everything repeats until you make a decision). This ties into an entirely unnecessary failure condition to give a weak appearance of Toy. Strictly speaking, the entire Ace Attorney (i.e. Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice, Investigations) series is a terrible Toy, yet is more likely to be considered a video game rather than a Visual Novel.

I would argue that the reason Ace Attorney is considered a Video game is because it has a strong similarity with the Adventure games of yore, such as Monkey Island, King’s Quest, Maniac Mansion, etc. However, each of these games hold some similarity to visual novels. Many JRPGs also resemble Visual Novels, with a plethora of portraits and text boxes. Arguably, the Mass Effect Series is a visual novel – instead of 999‘s room escapes, it has third-person shooter segments with RPG elements. Considering it is the narrative and choices that people talk about with Mass Effect, not the mediocre third-person shooter, it could be argued that Mass Effect deserves to be considered a Visual Novel.

There is, however, one notorious element which relegates Visual Novels to a marginalized class – the eroge.

What is an eroge? Like Visual Novel, the term is broad and vague. It’s a Japanese-originated portmanteau of English words (they do that a LOT). It is a combination of “erotic” and “game.” If a game contains sexual content, it’s placed in the eroge bucket. Mass Effect and Monkey Island fans don’t want to be associated with Japanese fetish porn (can’t blame them), so they distance themselves from the concept of a Visual Novel, because Visual Novels are associated with eroge. And yes, if Mass Effect is a Visual Novel, it’s also an eroge.

Not all eroge are created equal. On one end of the spectrum, you have a half-hearted attempt at plot to serve as an excuse to hop from one explicit scene to the next. Those are porn, plain and simple. Then you have an actual effort at a story, sprinkled liberally with explicit scenes. This is harder to categorize, because there are some truly compelling stories, buried under layers of porn. Some of the stories had later versions with the explicit content removed, but most never receive a clean rerelease. So, for the most part, you have the narrative equivalent of an ice cream sundae drizzled with motor oil, which is a shame. Finally, there are stories which happen to have explicit content, but the content is properly contextualized in the narrative. With the game elements of many Visual Novels, this becomes an unfortunate “Sex as a reward,” though not always the case. Even at that, this latter category seems to have a very strong stigma against it. This likely ties to the perception of Visual Novels as Video Games, Video Games as Toys, and Toys as being purely for kids. There are several movies which have explicit content, often entirely gratuitous, and they receive critical acclaim. When a Visual Novel has explicit content, even if it is measured, tasteful, and relevant to the plot, it is dismissed as some sort of twisted juvenile porn.

Whether or not it is proper to address explicit material in a narrative is a question of art as a whole. There are several factors, as I have previously addressed, but it is not a judgement that can be made on the basis of medium, only on content, intent, and interpretation. And even then, the final element of the experience is the individual. An individual, in the proper (or improper) disposition, can find pornography in great art, or great art buried in pornography. One should obviously avoid the former, but it must be a solemn and well-considered decision to attempt the latter – the experience will change the individual, so it is best to be prudent in determining what should be experienced.

A toy is not a bad thing. Dictionaries tend to define toys as “for children.” The Wikipedia article takes a more balanced, less dismissive approach. The key phrase as follows: ” Adults use toys and play to form and strengthen social bonds, teach, remember and reinforce lessons from their youth, discover their identity, exercise their minds and bodies, explore relationships, practice skills, and decorate their living spaces.”

When you state it like that, it sounds dignified, and a downright serious intellectual activity. Because that’s exactly what it is. All men have toys, whether they’re Lego, dolls, action figures, board games, pencil and paper RPGs, electronic devices, power tools, automobiles, gardens, or whatever else. The experience of art is in the interpretation, and it is natural and human to interpret something as a toy if that is how you use it.

There is no shame in enjoying toys. There is no shame in publicly embracing toys. People claim that there’s something wrong with the adult who plays Dungeons & Dragons or Super Mario Bros. or hundreds of other diversions, yet no one is called a “man-child” for playing Words With Friends or Angry Birds – at worst it is considered unprofessional.

More importantly, video games, generally speaking, should be toys. Portal was called a toy by the designer, and it is a very appropriate appellation. People enjoyed the story and jokes, but it was the toy element that truly resonated. Even now, people toy with the idea of “What if you had a portal gun in [situation]?” This also indicates the tepid reception of Portal II in many circles. In Portal II, you got some new toys, but people felt too limited by their main toy. The narrative and writing was as strong as ever, perhaps stronger than the original, but, being less of a toy, people loved it just a little bit less.

Shadow of the Colossus is considered a milestone for the “Games are Art” crowd, as it’s achieved a solid, if delayed, reception. Pretty much universally, the game is hailed as an example of video games being art. While I certainly concede the atmosphere and world building and all those other artistic elements, my most memorable experiences had little to do with the overarching themes or nuances. What I remember most from the game are the epic set pieces that were the Colossus fights – puzzles combined with more traditional platformer challenges, all on such a large scale. The one that particularly stands out is the fight against the flying colossus over the lake. To taunt the beast, grab hold, and take it down in flight as it struggles to shake you off – there really hasn’t been a similar experience in any game I’ve played. But this experience has little to nothing to do with the artistic merits of Shadow of the Colossus. Shadow of the Colossus is an excellent game because it is artistically relevant, but it is also an excellent toy. If it weren’t a good toy, it would likely have been forgotten, or at best a footnote.

Of course, video games don’t need to be toys, and they can still be good and memorable if they aren’t toys. Shadow of the Colossus needed to be a toy, because the theme was focused on the subversion of the toy. The danger, however, lies in the fact that a game that is not a toy can begin to feel like work. One of the big buzzwords right now is “gamification.” Gamification is applying the “toy” functionality/interpretation to something that is not normally considered a toy. If gamification is applying “toy” to “non-toy,” then an attempt to make a video game that is art without being toy is essentially an application of de-gamification. The key value of gamification is to provide an incentive to engage. To what end should we attempt de-gamification? Is it a push for legitimacy? If so, it is no more meritorious than an attempt to impress the “cool kids.” As any uncool kid knows, attempts to impress the cool kids often fail miserably, and alienate the people most willing to accept you as you are. If the “Games are Art” people can’t even learn the lessons of a Saturday Morning cartoon, how do they expect to have anything to say, much less anyone to listen to them?

There may be a reason for a non-toy video game. Arguably, there are already several worthwhile non-toy games. In each case, however, they likely answer the question “to what end?” The natural function of the game is “toy.” If you remove that interpretation, you should have something compelling to put in its place.

Time for a change in pace. Narrative Structure, in the sense used in this post, refers to the flow and progression of the story. Arguably, the narrative structures mentioned here are more prominent in interactive media, but they can just as easily appear in books or movies.

Linear

This is the simplest and most straightforward structure. You start at the beginning and continue forward until you reach the end. Strictly speaking, Linear structure tends to be the superstructure of any narrative, but there are rare cases where there is no sense of Linearity.

Branching

This is a slight variation from Linear. In a Branching narrative, there are side paths, but they return to the core narrative while retaining the status quo. A filler arc in a television show is a Branch. A scene in a movie that provides no contribution to the plot is a Branch. In dungeons in RPGs, Branches manifest as “go the wrong way for more treasure.” Branches aren’t always bad; they aren’t always detrimental to the narrative. For example, a Branch can provide characterization of other insights into the narrative or interpretation, without actually pushing the plot forward. Arguably, Citizen Kane‘s narrative is a reporter trying to figure out what “Rosebud” means. 90% of the movie, then, is Branches.

Multipath

Another variation of linear. Multipath is like branching, but the branch rejoins the story at a different point than the departure, allowing two routes through the narrative. This is easier to see in video games, where one path takes you over the mountain, while another takes you through the mountain. At the end, you’ve arrived at the same point, but you took different routes to get there. Super Mario Bros. is on the surface Linear, but secret pipes, beanstalks, and warp zones reveal the hidden Multipath aspects. Super Mario Bros. 2 (Japan)(AKA The Lost Levels) added reverse warp zones, making the narrative recursive, but still a Linear Multipath.

Forking

Unlike Branching and Multipath, a Forking structure never returns to the source. Most Choose Your Own Adventure books used a Forking structure, with the occasional instance of Multipath. The movie Clue was presented in theatres in a forking structure, with three different endings, randomly chosen. The DVD version presents a choice at the beginning, between the theatrical random ending and the VHS all three endings. Therefore, the DVD version actually has two Forks – one at the beginning, and one at the end of the former path.

Network

A Network is, in its purest sense, at the opposite end of the spectrum from the Linear structure. In a Networked narrative, there are several Nodes, or points of interest, and paths between the Nodes, connecting many – but not necessarily all – to each other. There are few examples of a pure Network narrative, but, in fairness, there are few pure Linear narratives as well. Memento is probably an effective example of a Network used in a non-interactive medium – there are several points of interest throughout the presentation, but they are not presented in a Linear manner.

Gated Network

A Gated Network is essentially a Network with a mild Linear superstructure. There is something necessary to progress the plot forward, but there is no narrative compulsion to achieve that goal at any specific point. The Legend of Zelda is a simple Gated Network – you have freedom of movement among nodes, but need some items to bypass obstacles (soft gates), and need to complete narrative goals to reach the final dungeon (hard gate).

Putting it Together

Any specific example is likely to use many of these structures in a nested format. The Megaman series is a gated network with a hard gate (defeat all the robot masters) leading to a linear second half. In the earlier games, the Network is a Linear Network, as each node can only be visited (completed) once. Each node within the Network (as well as the post-Network levels) is itself a Linear narrative, generally with Branches and the occasional Multipath. Later games even experiemented with Forks in the sub-nodes. Mass Effect 2 presents Linear interpersonal narratives with Forks. Each conversation is a combination of Linear Multipath and Linear Fork, as well. This is all encapsulated in a Gated Network which is seeded with a few linear nodes. And event hat comes off as an oversimplification.

Flags and Variables

Flags and Variables are not inherent to narrative structure, and largely only present in video games from a technical standpoint, but they are necessary in understanding and dissecting a narrative structure. Branches, Forks, and Multipaths are occasionally presented as a direct choice, but they are often the result of flags and variables set by previous choices. Flags are a binary value – it is true or it is false. When an event triggers a flag, the flag is set to “true” or “false” or, in some circumstances, is toggled (i.e. switched from true to false or vice-versa). Flags occasionally appeared in Choose Your Own Adventure books that included Branches or Multipath – “If you have the MacGuffin, turn to page 20. If you do not have the MacGuffin, turn to page 127.” Variables work in roughly the same way as Flags (i.e. as logic gates), but are incremental. When an event triggers a variable, a number is added to or subtracted from the stored variable. In a Choose Your Own Adventure book, they would be presented as “If you have five or more vials of phlebotonium, turn to page 63. If you have fewer than four vials of phlebotonium, turn to page 16. If you have four vials of phlebotonium, turn to page 140.” Returning to the Mass Effect 2 example, certain conversation options require a minimum variable (generally Paragon or Renegade value). After the loyalty arc for any potential romantic partners, the “Interested in Romance” flag for that individual is set to “true,” and remains true until the wrong thing is said. When the “Interested in Romance” flag is false, the characters have much less to say, though they may have new dialog due to the “loyalty” flag being true.